From the beginning of his ministry on earth, right Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God in word and deed, which according to him was not a future reality, but a reality that is present within people (Luke 17:21). Jesus also said that the Kingdom of God has been established from the foundation of the world (Matthew 25:34). If this is really true, what else did the cross add to the existence of the Kingdom of God?
Jesus: “I will speak of things that have been hidden from the foundation of the world.” (Matthew 13:35)
As “Bible-believing” Christians, we have always been so busy explaining what Jesus would have accomplished for us on the cross and through his resurrection. Apparently, we can’t live with the idea that Jesus would have gone to the cross “for nothing”. But what if the “only thing” that Jesus wanted to achieve with the cross and resurrection is: to open our eyes to the Kingdom of God, which has always been there ? That God only uses the most senseless violence that has occurred in human history (not only on the cross) and is still occurring “for good” by using it to open our eyes to the Kingdom of God that has always been within us? That Jesus did not fix anything else for us that we ourselves would not have been able to do? Then we can stop explaining why Jesus had to go to the cross and what cosmic change would have taken place with the resurrection. We can then focus instead on the real message of the cross and resurrection; on that which Jesus wanted to open our eyes to. Nothing more and nothing less!
If Jesus did not fix anything essential in our place, then he need not have been a fundamentally different person than we are. This fact enables us to open our eyes to the truth that every person – in exactly the same way as Jesus was – is an incarnation of the Eternal! Every person is – in exactly the same way as Jesus – Christ! Every person is – in exactly the same way as Jesus – a Son or Daughter of God! If we realize this, then we can become – in exactly the same way as Jesus – manifest as Sons and Daughters of God. After all, that is what the groaning creation is still eagerly looking forward to.
“In the beginning was the Word (logos = pattern), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made according to the same pattern, and without this pattern nothing was made. In all that was made is life, and the life is the light of men… He was the true Light, which when it comes into the world, gives light to all men.” (John 1:1-4;9; MV)
If we believe that the Kingdom of God can and will become fully visible here and now, and we believe that God will not only be everything in all in a “hereafter”, but here and now, then we will have to become aware here and now of who we are as human beings by nature. We are just as Christ as Jesus of Nazareth! In fact, God will have to become conscious of Himself here and now through us – as us! Only then will there be God everything in all. This thought makes what I have just described even more relevant. The Kingdom of God can only become fully visible on earth when we as people of flesh and blood realize that God wants to become conscious of Himself as us! All creation is incarnation! The true Light illuminates every person! That which we – as a result of the fall in consciousness – have regarded as two, has always been one! In reality, there has never – but then also never – been a question of duality, of separation, of two parties. God and man have always been completely one and that is why Jesus did not have to fix anything for us on the cross. That which we as Christians have always believed only about Jesus of Nazareth up to now, applies to every person!
In order to become aware of this, we will also have to look in another way at the cross and resurrection. As long as we believe that the resurrection of Jesus was a supernatural miracle, through which a cosmic change took place or through which the cosmos was reconciled with God, we will continue to think that Jesus belonged to a different category of human being than we do, which will always create a distance between Jesus and us in our thinking, with the result that we will never realize who we ourselves, as people of flesh and blood, really are by nature. Then our eyes will never be opened to the truth that Jesus wanted to reveal to us through the cross and resurrection.
“God is in Christ reconciling the cosmos to himself (present tense!) …” (2 Corinthians 5:19). This was not a one-time act on the cross, but it is a process that has been going on since the foundation of the world and is not yet complete. It is the process in which we become aware that the two (God on the one hand and man on the other) have always been one. The process in which we as humans become aware of that which has been hidden from the foundation of the world. Man (every human being of all times) is by definition a Christ-man, a by God Spirit anointed of the Lord. You and I are for the full 100% as Jesus in this world (1 John 4:17). The Father and you are one! Whoever has seen you, has seen the Father! You are the Way, the Truth and the Life!
Speaking of cross and resurrection… If the cross and resurrection of Jesus are meant as a revelation to open our eyes to that which has always been true and therefore no cosmic change has taken place through cross and resurrection, then this also opens the way to look at death and resurrection with different (opened?) eyes. Would you like to read more about this? Click here for the article Looking at death and resurrection of the Christ with open eyes.
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